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Neither rich nor poor. Neither gentrifying nor in steep decline. “Middle neighborhoods” have recently captured the attention of community development circles (and are the subject of ongoing coverage in Next City). These neighborhoods, broadly defined as areas with households earning 80 to 120 percent of the area median income, currently face a growing number of challenges. One glaring challenge is age — while homeownership rates are high, houses in middle neighborhoods are often quite old, and residents tend to have fewer resources for upkeep.

We work in a number of cities with many middle neighborhoods, connecting foreclosed homes to community housing organizations that will acquire and properly rehabilitate those homes. For example, in the city of Baltimore, Maryland, more than half of residents live in middle neighborhoods. As is the case in many of the cities along the East Coast, three-quarters of the homes in Baltimore were built before 1960.

The development and delivery of right-sized, right-priced workforce housing is one of the most challenging yet undervalued opportunities for builders and developers today.

This so-called “middle neighborhood” defines a third to half of urban America, representing a wide variety of ethnicities to form some of the most racially and socioeconomically diverse areas in the country, says Paul Brophy, principal at Brophy & Reilly, a community development consulting firm based in Ellicott City, Md., and editor of On the Edge: America’s Middle Neighborhoods. In the book, he shares dozens of case studies from policymakers, scholars, and other community development professionals.

Not quite thriving, not quite distressed and ignored by policymakers, middle neighborhoods look to community development groups for support and stability. A look at the programs that can improve outcomes in these precarious places.

The story of Chatham, on the South Side of Chicago, while unique in many ways, can also sound familiar to those in neighborhoods of cities all across the country. Families moved here from far away, often fleeing violence and oppression. Parents found good paying, steady jobs. They put down roots and purchased homes. Children grew up with encouragement from parents, teachers, relatives and friends, some of them going on to Ivy League colleges and illustrious professional careers.

The recently-released Opportunity Atlas provides fresh evidence that neighborhoods — even blocks within neighborhoods — are determinants of children’s life chances, even when families have similar incomes. Similarly, the Neighborhood Life Expectancy Project shows how disparities in health, block by block, are based on neighborhood conditions.

These new reports are a reminder that the streets we call home — even more than the cities, counties, towns and suburbs we live in — are major predictors of quality of life and life opportunity. Given this growing understanding of how neighborhoods affect life outcomes, why aren’t more policymakers, civic and private leaders turning their attention to them?

One important issue gaining traction in urban policy discussions is the critical role of middle neighborhoods, which may be the most overlooked asset in today’s cities and suburbs.

“Middle neighborhoods” are prevalent and important — so why are they ignored? Your bus network may never change, even though changing it would make it better. During campaign season, mayoral candidates shift their focus from downtowns to neighborhoods.

Neither the little guy nor the bigwig: “Middle neighborhoods” are home to much of the US population. They aren’t flashy — most residents make 80% to 120% of area median income — but they’re often strongholds of racial diversity and allow people to be upwardly mobile. Despite their importance, they don’t get the same attention and funding as the poorest or wealthiest places. (Kelly Regen and Stephanie Sung | Next City)

Des Moines city leaders moved forward Monday on a multimillion-dollar plan to revitalize neighborhoods by busting blight, but only four neighborhoods are included.

The Des Moines City Council unanimously approved a $4.6 million pilot program to make improvements to Oak Park/Highland Park, the Drake University neighborhood, 48th Street and Franklin Avenue and the Two Rivers neighborhood.

Neighborhoods excluded from the pilot program, such as Cheatom Park, have plenty of blight.

Cheatom Park Neighborhood Association President Susan Wells said she doesn’t understand why her neighborhood didn’t make the cut.

City officials said the plan comes off the heels of an outside study that says Des Moines needs to focus on stabilizing property values in so-called “middle neighborhoods” — places where the housing market is neither strong nor weak but could begin to struggle if there is more blight.

Today, nearly half of all residents of U.S. cities live in a middle neighborhood. It’s not a place where real estate is hot, where prices skyrocket and cause displacement. Nor is it a place in distress, overwhelmed by vacancy and neglect. Middle neighborhoods are racially and socioeconomically diverse, historically home to working- and middle-class families. They provide critical opportunities for upward mobility.

Some are stable. Some are threatened by gentrification. Yet many more are at a great risk of tipping into decline.

Neighborhoods are, by nature, constantly in flux. So why does it matter that middle neighborhoods are disappearing?

Next City and The American Assembly are soliciting op-eds about middle neighborhoods—Where are they? Why are they important? And what are the biggest obstacles to addressing their needs?

If you are a resident, community organizer, practitioner, researcher or policymaker working to effect change in middle neighborhoods—and perhaps rewriting the playbook in order to do so—your input is needed.

Neither hot market areas nor overly distressed with falling prices, middle neighborhoods are reasonably affordable, stable, and safe. They are among the most racially and socioeconomically diverse neighborhoods in the nation and play an important role in building opportunity and prosperity. And while they get little national attention, there is a growing movement to document and share strategic interventions and policies that stabilize them.

Which is why we want to hear from you.

On the edge between growth and decline, middle neighborhoods are a subject of growing importance and we’d love to hear your insights. A sample list of Op-Ed topics to address include:

How do you define middle neighborhoods? What are their characteristics and why do they matter?

What is the opportunity for coordinated action at a larger scale (regional, state, or federal) to support middle neighborhoods?

Please address all submissions (or pitches) to editor Oscar Perry Abello at oscar@nextcity.org, and include “Middle Neighborhoods Op-Ed Idea” in the subject line. Feel free to submit anything from a few bullet points to a full draft. The deadline for submissions is September 10th, 2018.

If published, Op-Ed submissions will be included in presentation materials at the next national meeting on middle neighborhoods in Cleveland, OH on Nov 13th-14th, 2018. The meeting is presented in partnership by The American Assembly, local community groups and the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. Practitioners, policymakers, and researchers will share insights and learn about recent efforts to build the knowledge base around middle neighborhoods. The meeting will also provide practical information about how to mobilize support to better serve these communities. To learn more, visit www.middleneighborhoods.org or contact Stephanie Sung at The American Assembly, ss4336@columbia.edu.

Foreclosure continues to destabilize lower-income and minority communities and affect home values throughout Philadelphia. Historically, Philadelphia’s black population built wealth through homeownership in predominantly African American “middle” neighborhoods, where home values ranged from roughly 50 percent below to 50 percent above the city’s median home sale price ($96,500).

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.@JRGordonDC & Theodora Chang of @_NCST explain how a new federal approach, the Neighborhood Home Investment Act, could rehabilitate housing in #middleneighborhoods “in a way that harnesses market discipline & pays only for success”. For more: https://t.co/o6rGt40rUW @Nextcityorg